Would You Sacrifice?
by SetsunaNoroi
Summary: Aeris is called back to the living for a task she must complete. Old threats are coming but will she find the temptation to be back with her friends too hard to resist? And are there others who may feel angered by their forced sacrifices? ARe


This is yet another one of my FF7 fanfictions. This has a more in depth plot than my one shots, but it isn't too much of a conspiracy story like Revenge was. I do plan to put in the main coupling of Aries and Reno in there, because I have come to love the coupling since my Curiosity fic. Those of you have read my Who Would Have Guessed fic should also know that I will throw in some Elena/Yuffie, but it probably won't have much to do with the plot so it will be pretty small.

Pretty much what I'm trying to say is that there will be little points and comments that will refer to these two other fics. I felt like tying up some of my work together, I guess. However theses will only be comments and so forth. I would recommend you reading this other two stories before this, but you do not have to enjoy the full plot, just the bonuses. If you've already read the before mentioned stories, than I'm happy that you've decided to read my other work, and I hope that you enjoy this one as well.

Quick disclaimer before we start. I don't own Final Fantasy 7 or any of its characters. Various creators and Square Soft do. I own plot, but expect no millions of dollars or an adoring fan-base for it.

Chapter1: Awkenings

The Life Stream flowed around her, calming her, letting her know what she had to do and why she had to do it. She would admit that she was afraid, anyone else would be. Fear was natural. But she would still do what would need to be done. Bravery was not being unafraid. It was when one could walk past the fear and still function as they needed to.

Whispers of the Planet encouraged her, as if it wanted her to know she had not been abandoned, despite the sacrifice she would be making all to soon. She didn't blame it. She had made her choice. It had made it's. This was the only way to stop Jenova, that …monster that had come to her home and wanted nothing but to destroy it for her own gain.

So here she was waiting in the underground temple of her city waiting for her fate. It was the only permanent home that the race of Cetra had ever made and she loved it so much. It was only just that her lasts moments would be here.

Her grip on the White Materia tightened. There was only one thing that worried her. When it all happened she would be alone. No longer a part of the Life Stream, but separate from it. She would not know what would happen even as it was happening. Her sister was suffering the same fate.

"Please," she whispered, "just let me see. What is our fate? What is to become of us?"

Her question had fallen to the hollow walls of the temple. For a moment she thought she would not be answered until images began to flood into her mind. She saw a woman her age kneeling where she was now, hands clasped in prayer. Then without warning a man clad in black swept upon her and stabbed her as easily as crushing an ant.

She found herself gasping when she came back to her senses. What had that vision meant? It had been so quick, only a few seconds, but it was so painful for her to see. Who had that woman been, a fellow Cetra? But she did not know her. Was what she saw to happen in the future? But what did that have to do with her?

It didn't seem to matter though as she felt the tendrils of the Life Stream begin to beckon for her. It was her time. Now or never she guessed.

The pain came slowly but after what she had just witnessed she whished the Planet would do it quickly instead of prolonging her suffering. Still, she didn't complain. It would be over soon enough. The Planet had set up every defense it could think of in order to defend itself and it's children from the Calamity from the sky. It could do no more.

The pain finally faded away to numbness and she closed her eyes, happy and sad at the same time about her fate.

---------

Heaven was a curious place. That was something that Aeris had decided a long time ago. How one got there was easy enough. Death lead you to one of two places, heaven or purgatory. There was no hell, only purgatory. A place to redeem all sins before you were allowed entrance in heaven, the Promised Land.

There weren't a lot of rules concerning heaven. One could come or go as they wished. One created their own small world, a home to dwell, but there were really no bounds or limits to the afterlife. Nothing was solid, permanent but not solid. It was an abstract and a paradox. No real words had ever come to describe it. It was what it was. She had laughed when Reno had failed to grasp the concept when she had seen him last but to be fair she didn't understand the idea entirely herself, even after over two years of living here. She just did her best to try and exist in it.

These were the thoughts that she had begun to think lately. It wasn't that heaven was boring or anything but she couldn't always fight back that feeling of regret. She was homesick sometimes, missing her friends and her foster mother. She had never said goodbye, to any of them. Just to Reno, and even that had not seemed fair to him.

There had been those who tried to get her away from such thoughts. Aeris had met many Cetra that had lived before her. She seemed so popular with them. The savior that had rescued the Planet from Jenova, even though it had meant her life. Even though she had only the blood of a Cetra on her mother's side, she was everything they all thought a Cetra should be. Self-sacrificing and willing to move forward to her duties and the Promised Land no matter the hardships.

Though as proud as it made her she still missed home. It was just a fact.

Perhaps that's why her mother Ilfana had come to visit her that day. They saw each other often, catching up on time that the two of them had lost once she had died on the cold streets of Midgar. It had been horrible to see the only one who had given her comfort in her entire life slip away before her eyes at the simple age of seven. Ilfana's only choice had been to give her away to a total stranger based on the hope that she would be able to protect her daughter. The decision had proved right, but Aeris still knew how it had pained them both to be torn from one another just as they had been able to escape the hellish lab that they had been trapped in.

"Something on your mind?" Ilfana asked from the pew she was sitting on as she watched her daughter tend her flowers. Aeris had chosen this as her heaven for that main reason. Flowers had been her life for a long time; she had refused to not have at least one reminder of home with her at least.

"Just thinking about the past," Aries replied as she looked up at her mother. "I miss them you know."

"I know," she said back. "It wasn't fair what was asked of you. There are things that I miss about that place, that I would love to go back and see…"

Her mother trailed off and gazed out the window for a moment before she looked back to her daughter.

"Actually… that's why I've come here."

Aeris gave her a perplexed look. "What do you mean?"

Ilfana sighed and shook her head. "I've been offered to be sent back to the living. There's something that needs to be done. I don't think I need to though, no matter how much I would like to. Anyone I cherished before I died are now here. There's nothing left for me to go back and see aside from the land itself. That's why I refused the Planets request, to let you go in my place."

Metal clattered loudly as Aeris dropped the watering can she had. Her mouth seemed to go dry, not able to speak. Had she heard what she had thought she had heard? Surely it couldn't be true.

"I'm… I'm allowed to… go back?" she managed to choke out.

Ilfana looked incredibly saddened by her daughter's response.

"You can, but only for a little while." Aeris began to say some thing but her mother held up her hand to silence her. "Let me explain it to you. You are going back on a mission. It will be temporary, only until you accomplish your task. Then you… You will die again Aeris. You must understand that most of all. I promise you it won't be anything like last time. You'll simply… stop when you have to."

Ilfana was getting through her words but Aeris could see the tears flowing down her aged face easily enough. She was sad to have to tell her daughter that she may not be done giving to her Planet. Her poor mother was probably torn apart by the prospect that Aeris might get upset with her for asking her such a seemingly cruel thing. But Aeris was a creature that was born to understand and try to help. She really didn't have much room in her to hate, and what she did hold hatred for, her mother and the Planet was certainly not on the list.

"I just have one question. Why me?" she asked. "You just said that you would like to go. If you'll just come right back, what does it matter?"

"If I go back, I have no one to give a goodbye to that I wasn't able to when I died. You still have friends, and there are no rules that say you cannot see them again. I think that you want to say it to them, see them again. You deserve that at least. They can even help you, should you choose that path," she answered. "I don't know if you want to face the pain of seeing them again. It would be wrong to tear you and them apart again, but you have also said before that you regret never saying farewell. The Planet is prepared to give you what you ask for, no matter whether you decide to stay or go. But I felt that you deserved the choice."

Aeris stared at the ground. She was being offered a chance to go back to her friends. She could say goodbye. She knew they would be more upset if they found out she had said no in order to not have to see them again. She wanted them all there when she left a second time. She wanted to tell Cloud how much he meant to her, how she thought of Tifa of as her best friend, how she had always trusted Barret to help her, how she appreciated Red 13's wisdom and Vincent's level headedness. Yuffie could always make her laugh and with Cid she always knew where she stood.

Tears flecked the dusty floor but the flower girl made no attempt to wipe them away from her face. It was impossible to tell what the tears were from. Pain, sadness, happiness, longing, dread; they all seemed to be whirling inside of her in a crazy cyclone and overflowing from her.

"I'll go back. I have … I _want_ to see them all again," she finally whispered.

Ilfana nodded her head. "Very well, but you should know that what you have to do is no easy task."

"What do I have to do?" she asked.

"You know as well as I do that the White Materia summons Holy. It's been the Planets main defense for a very long time. But there is a problem. Only a Cetra was ever intended to use it. Unlike the Black Materia, which can be used by anyone with enough power behind them, the White Materia was made to be pure and to be used by only the pure. If Cloud or one the others had tried to do what you did, there would have been nothing left to this Planet because it simply would not have worked. Holy would have been unable to answer their call if it had not been for you."

"But then the Planet could still be in danger. Jenova could still be out there somewhere, and could still try to use Meteor again. We wouldn't be able stop her then! How could the Planet have done such a thing?"

"That's why one of us has to go back. Not to insure there is always a Cetra to use the White Materia but to get the Materia back, both of them. The Black and White Materia were both made by the Planet when Jenova originally came here when the world was much younger. They were devised as weapons, but just as she was able to corrupt the Cetra, she was also able to corrupt the Black Materia so it no longer answered only to Cetra but to her as well and anyone she would decide to use to do her bidding."

"Sephiroth," Aeris whispered.

Her mother nodded.

"You must now find and retrieve both Materia and destroy them both. The White Materia can no longer protect this Planet so they must both go back to the Life Stream. We really have no idea if this wasn't Jenova's plan from the beginning. We have to try to act now that she's failed to bring herself and Sephiroth back. We have a window of opportunity, but it may not last long. It took two years for her to strike before, but we have no guaranty how long she'll wait the next time or what she'll do when she strikes." She paused for a second and stood to walk over to Aeris. She reached out her hand to her daughter who slowly reached back.

"You'll do fine. I have faith in you, and you will have those that will be there to help you stand," Ilfana said after she had helped Aeris stand. She pressed her lips against her forehead and pulled her into a hug. "I'll let them know you'll come back."

Aeris nodded and gripped her mother happily before she started to fade away. It had already begun and the Planet had no time to waste.

"Thank you," she whispered to the Planet. "She deserves this second chance. But you do too, you know."

Kadaj shook his head from where he was sitting hunched up in a nearby corner.

"Big Brother probably doesn't want to see me. I don't deserve to go."

He had left while Aeris and Ilfana had been talking, only coming back to glimpse Aeris leaving.

Ilfana looked over at the young silver haired man. There had been many in heaven that believed that he did not deserve to be heaven, that he should spend the rest of eternity in Purgatory, never to receive forgiveness. But Aeris had spoken for him, saying that he had been manipulated and forced to think what Jenova wanted him to for her own greed. He stayed with Aeris most of the time, but preferred to be left alone.

He was a simple child when it came down to it. He was scared that there were those still mad at him and would not risk interaction with many. She could imagine it tore his heart out have to watch the who he had started to refer to as 'Big Sister' leave but it only showed how afraid he was of the idea of having to deal with the real world again. But he did not need to feel lonely either, though she could not keep an eye on him, having duties she already needed to attend to.

"I've arranged to have some one stay with you until Aeris gets back. I think that you'll enjoy her company too," she told Kadaj.

"Who?" he asked.

The door of the church opened and a middle-aged woman walked in. She looked timid, even more so than what Kadaj looked these days. A plain skirt and blouse was topped by lab coat and a small smile rested beneath half-moon glasses.

"Kadaj, I'd like you to meet Miss Lucrecia," Ilfana said.

-----------

The wind had begun to pick up. It made Tifa nervous. Midgar, or rather the Outskirts, wasn't a very windy place. A breeze or two wasn't anything that was worth worrying about but a current of air this strong usually meant a bad storm was coming. She would have to do a quick check to make sure Denzel and Marlene were indoors and out of danger of the possibly upcoming storm.

"Marlene," she called up the stairs from behind the counter of her new bar. "Marlene, are you here?"

She was worried when she didn't hear anything so she quickly told the few couple patrons that were here in the early hours of the afternoon that she would be right back and they might want to think about getting home themselves if they didn't want to get stuck in a place were they were expected to pay to hang about. After a couple of chuckles she headed up the stairs and turned to the rooms that the children shared.

"Hey Marlene, are you and Denzel in here?"

The two children that she was taking care of turned to look at her. They had been whispering amongst themselves in hushed and hurried little voices. Tifa glanced past them to see what was causing such a reaction for the two.

She screamed as Aeris' eyes began to slowly open.

"Tifa," Marlene said quickly. "Is it really her?"

The bar hostess would have slipped to the floor if not for her now gripping the doorframe for support. She saw Aeris sit up slowly and look at her.

"Tifa?" she whispered so soft the other woman could barely hear.

Tifa broke then, diving for Aeris and sweeping her into a hug, tears flowing from her eyes. Slim arms wrapped around her as well and for a long time the two just sat in the bed, basking in each other's presence. There was silence. Neither wanted to ruin the moment of their reunion.

"Aeris?" Denzel asked eventually after the two women had pulled apart and Tifa was now wiping the tears from her eyes. "Are you Aeris?"

The Cetra smiled down at him and nodded.

"I am. You're Denzel, right?"

"Yes ma'am," he answered.

"Aeris, what are you doing here? How did you get back?" Tifa asked her.

She sighed. "I'm sorry Tifa, but the explanation is rather complicated. I really need to see everyone before and I can tell anyone anything. I know it's not much of an answer, but I want everyone to hear the first time together."

Tifa stood up.

"Cloud is making a delivery but he's due back pretty soon. It was just a small thing in town. Barret is with him right now. The others are elsewhere. I think we could get them all gathered together by tomorrow at the latest. I'll start making calls."

Aeris watched her walk out of the room. Tifa seemed so calm, but Aeris could see that her legs were still trembling, even as she left. The Cetra felt slightly guilty. It had not been her plan to drop in on her friend like this. She had not been asked where she would want to be when she awoke. Still, she didn't think that the shock could have been numbed in any way.

She could only imagine all of her friends' reaction when she told them why she was here.

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Yuffie held her phone, not believing what she was hearing.

"You've gotta be kidding," she said into the receiver. "Really, come on Tifa. … All right, I'll be there as soon as possible. No need to have Cid pick me up. I can make there on my own in a day. … I'm in Junon. … Why? So awa himistu desu."

She hung up her cell and turned to Elena.

"Sorry, hafta go?"

Elena slipped her shirt back on. The bed was pretty rumpled. Figured Yuffie would disappear before she could be asked to help straighten. But Yuffie was just like that, so the blonde didn't mind.

"Where are you going?" she asked.

The teen ninja wrapped her arms around the Turk and gave her a quick kiss on the neck that made Elena shiver.

"I'm going to Midgar to meet an old friend," Yuffie said.

"A friend?" she asked.

Yuffie nodded. "Aeris is alive."

"What?" Elena gasped.

"Yeah, and now might be a good time to tell Reno. Just saying," Yuffie said with a shrug.

---------

This seemed more like a prologue than an actual first chapter. Not a lot happened besides from Aeris coming back. The rest of the chapters will be probably be longer as I'll have a lot more to put in later and I don't want to cut it up too much into small chapters.

I hope everyone like the last little bit there. Those two are so cute together, and I needed a way to let Reno know that Aeris was back. I was considering just having Tifa call him too but that didn't work 'cause no one knew that he even had a thing for the girl. For the same reason it didn't seem to fit for Aeris to ask Tifa to do it either, so I had Yuffie leak the info. I can only guess that now that she's spending so much time with Elena and the other Turks, she's just picked up a few things about them because she's a ninja and all that. Shyeah, or she and Reno just got drunk together and he blabbed. You pick.

By the way, every once in a while I have Yuffie say something in Japanese (or Wutainese in the fic since there is no Japan in the FF7 world). She's an annoying character and I think her speaking in a language she knows that no one else understands fits her pretty well. This time what she said "So awa himitsu desu," meant "It's a secret." Obviously she hasn't seen the point of mentioning her relationship with Elena just yet.

Oh, and a quick thanks to Nando the RPS King, my beta. Like I always say, read his stuff, it's all really good.

Well, R&R to let me know what you think of this so far.


End file.
